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tv   Meet the Press  NBC  April 21, 2013 8:00am-9:00am PDT

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says it all had had this morning for boston. edging toward not normal, but there is still a lot of concern. based on what you know, has the threat pass ed? >> i think we think so. there are a lot of leads that law enforcement is still pursuing, the fbi and the atf, the state police and local police as well. there are a lot of questions that all of us have and that law enforcement have yet to answer for us including questions direct directly to the suspect, but there isn't any basis for concern about another imminent threat. >> let me ask you some particulars about the surviving suspect, dzhokhar tsarnaev, who is now in the hospital. appare apparently he has a wound to the throat. did he try to commit suicide? >> i don't know the answer to that. >> do you know when doctors are saying he might actually be able to communicate? is there a real question about whether he'll be able to speak?
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>> i don't know those answers, david. i do know that he is in serious condition, but he's stable. and there are investigators prepared to interview him when he's able to be interviewed. >> the question about him coming onto the radar of the fbi two years ago, he was interviewed, he was tracked at the request of the russians, according to federal officials. that's questions now, for you and authorities in massachusetts, have to raise some concerns whether something was missed here. >> well, sure. there's a whole process here, and i think it was his brother, by the way, who was questioned by the fbi -- >> yes, forgive me, correct. >> a whole host of questions, david, that you have, that i have, more to the point that the fbi the a it tf and other law enforcement agencies will pursue. it's important for us to give them the space to do this me
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methodically because, frankly, it's been that approach, giving them that space so that they can build the case from facts up rather than start from broad theories and try to fill in the blanks that has gotten us as far as we've come as quickly as we've come. so i want to continue to respect that approach. >> i want to ask you one thing about how this developed as, in this case, dzhokhar, the younger brother, the surviving suspect, emerged as a real suspect. some of his reactions to the bombing you have indicated kind of cryptically was revealing to you. can you elaborate on that? >> well, right after the monday event, he was back on the campus of the university of massachusetts in dartmouth down in the south coast region. there is evidence of some, frankly, normal student behavior in those ensuing days which, when you consider the enormity
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of what he was responsible for, certain certainly, you know, raises a lot of questions in my mind and, as i say, more 30 the point of law in the minds of law enforcement as well. those are the kinds of leads that still have to be pursued and run to ground. >> is there anything on the videotape that maybe the public hasn't seen about his reaction that was particularly telling that moved the investigation along? >> well, the videotape is not something i've seen. it's been described to me in my briefing, but it does seem to be pretty clear that this suspect took the backpack off, put it down, did not react when the first explosion went off, and then moved away from the backpack in time for the second explosion. so pretty clear about his involvement and pretty chilling,
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frankly, as it was described to me. >> governor, as a former constituent department official, do you have a view of whether he should be part of the criminal justice system, as someone who is tried in court, or should he be treated as a terrorist, as an enemy combatant? that debate is only beginning now here in washington. >> well, that's the attorney general's call, and i have to respect it. he is an american citizen. he is responsible for a crime here in america. i trust the attorney general to make that call, to make it wisely. i will say that from my experience in the constituent department nearly 20 years ago now, one of of the things that was most striking and most gratifying about the experience these last few days is how well coordinated the law enforcement agencies were. the leadership of the fbi and the atf through the joint terrorism task force, the collaboration of the state police, the transit police at
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the state level, and boston pd and other local law enforcement was really seamless, and that collaboration and cooperation, i think, had a lot to do with how effective this investigation has been to this point. >> governor patrick, before i let you go, i know it's been difficult to find any time to exhale and reflect on this. how has this changed things for america in terms of assessing the threat of terrorism, an era of new normal that we face as a result of this? >> well, i think it's really important, david, that civic is rituals like the marathon, other large civic gatherings, go on. that we not surrender our occasions, public occasions, to terrorists. and we can have vigilance without fear. there are some lessons we're going to have to learn and have learned painfully through this last experience that will have
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to be applied to future marathons, but there will be future marathons and i think they will be bigger and better than of. and i think the other thing that has been so affirming is how beautifully people have turned to each other rather than on each other, and so many acts of kindness and grace shown to victims and to others in the course of this has been just a really beautiful thing to behold. >> governor patrick, a lot to go through and preside over this week. i thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you, david. joining me now nbc news justice correspondent, the man who has been leading our coverage all weeklong, pete williams, former director of the national counterterrorism center and now an nbc national security analyst, michael leiter, a former fbi agent, mike rogers, former secretary of homeland security under president bush, michael chertoff. and in just a few minutes we'll be joined by the assistant
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majority leader dick durbin, but i want to begin here with pete and mike liter on the latest in terms of what we're tracking. the big question at this moment is was there a foreign connection to terrorism? what do we know? >> well, we don't know the answer to that question. the big gap here is what was the older brother doing in russia for six months last year? he leaves in january, arrives in july, and the russians have told the fbi that they were a little worried about him. but what was he doing during all that time in russia? his father says he was visiting him, that he went to see his family, went to renew his russian passport while he was awaiting american citizenship. he was here as a lawful resident. did he -- the thing i think that's the biggest question for investigators now is, "a," why did he turn this way? but, "b," where did he get his expertise in explosives? where did he practice them? it seems really unlikely these two bombs successfully were detonated without some practice
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runs. where did he learn to do that? where did he practice? those are the big questions. >> we look at the pictures of the suspects and biographical information we have, dzhokhar, who is the surviving suspect here, dzhokhar tsarnaev, is in hospital. tamerlan born in kyrgystan, comes in 2002. he becomes a u.s. citizen, 9/11/2012. he was a wrestler, enrolled at the university of massachusetts-dartmouth. so many friends talking so positively about him. tamerlan, his older brother, does that travel. he comes later than his younger brother. he was mayrried, had a 3-year-od daughter. had a domestic violence incident. he dropped out of community colle college. he was a competitive boxer. people speaking very positively about him. but, chairman mike rogers, now we have more information about some evidence of him sort of dropping out of society, as it were, information after he comes back from foreign travel, postings on his youtube account and other social media indicating that he had exposure
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to jihadist elements whether that's connect canned to chechnya and the struggles there or otherwise. what do you know this morning and what do you want to know? >> it's important to understand why, in fact, the fbi interviewed him in the first place. so they had information from a foreign intelligence service that they were concerned about his possible radicalization. and so they went from there, the fbi did their due diligence, did a very thorough job about trying to run that to ground. and then asked for more help from that intelligence service to get further clarification and, unfortunately, that intelligence service stopped cooperating. so what happens is that case gets closed down. he, we believe, may have actually traveled on an alias to get back to his home country. and that six and a half months or so becomes extremely important. so you know he had some radicalization before he left. you know that he didn't probably travel on his own name or some variation of his own name.
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and when he comes back, he has a renewed interest in that radicalization belief process, so he's very devout. we know he was very religious, devout, and active in the boston islamic so ciety and a devout attender of prayers and mosque on fridays. so you see something happening, and you can see it happening after that travel. and so that six and a half months becomes incredibly important. and it would lead one to believe that's probably where he got that final radicalization to push him to commit acts of violence and where he may have received training on what we ultima ultimately saw last monday. >> as i get michael leiter and michael chertoff into this, he talked about a change that he noticed in tamerlan once he returned from that travel. let me play a portion of that. >> i saw what happened the last time i spoke with tamerlan in
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2009, and i was shocked when i heard his words, his phrases. every other word he starts sticking in words of devotion. it wasn't devotion. it was something, as it's being called, radicalized. >> important to you, mike leiter? >> very important. people think this is an atypical story of people who have lived here for a long time become radicalized and it regrettably isn't. in the times square bombing we had a case where someone had lived here for 13 years, had an mba, had worked for an american company, and then tried it bomb times square. the challenge here, david, there are lts and lots of people who go through these crises and become more radicalized but very, very few of them actually become mobilized and become terrorists and that's an incredibly hard piece for the fbi and others. >> and you're speaking, mike chertoff, did the fbi miss
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something? they were on him, tamerlan, that is. they talked to him. they tracked his digital footprint. chairman rogers talking about him then traveling on an ilyas, which i had not heard before. the red flag is up and then they closed the books on him. after they took a look at him, they determined there's no threat here. >> i think that is going to be a big question, david, and i go further than that and say if they had an indication of interest by a foreign service and a connection to an overseas group in chechnya or in the north caucasus, you would want our foreign capabilities focused on hip. they're going to make sure a ball wasn't dropped either domestically or overseas. >> mike leiter, concerned about that? >> it's not the clear to me that the report to the fbi said he was associated with a terrorist group. he might have been radicalized but that's very different and might raise a -- if not yellow flag but i don't think a red
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flag to the fbi. >> chairman rogers, you've been an fbi agent. you are now chair of the intelligence committee. was something missed here? >> well, we looked at and talked about what exactly the fbi did. and it's important to note that case was closed prior to his travel. so i don't think they missed anything. if you look at their digital footprint, they went through all the database checks and they did, and you did the thorough int interviews that you would expect them to do in a case like this, they did, and at some point they asked is there more clarifying information and never received that clarifying information. at some point they have nothing. and so you can't ask them to do something with nothing. they prudently said, well, there's nothing to see here at this point. now, remember, he then left and traveled and came back. now that's a different place. they had no further information indicating that until, of course, after the event itself. that's important to do, but i think they were very prudent and very thorough by my review of what happened prior to his travel. >> pete williams, it's important
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to underscore what was underscored to me by intelligence officials, federal officials the last couple of days, talking about what they call an american person. the younger brother is a citizen. the older brother was a legal citizen. which leads to this other point which is dzhokhar, now hospitalized, survived. he's an american citizen. natural i naturalized 9/11 of last year. should he be given miranda rights? should he be treated as an enemy combatant? that debate has started. give me the facts, first, what they'll do. >> this administration has made a policy decision here. first, that's number one. secondly, he cannot be tried as an enemy combatant in a military tribunal because that law was changed by the national defense authorization act of 2012 that says you can't do that to an american citizen. what some advocates, republicans, are saying such as lindsey graham are -- we understand, they say, we
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understand he's going to be tried in civilian court but start the questioning -- treat him as an enemy combatant under the law of war. question him by intelligence people. get all the intel you can. then turn him over to the civ civilian authorities. that's what they advocate. that's not going to happen, the administration has decided. he'll be questioned first by this special group set up in the last couple of years in terror cases called the high value detainee interrogation group, fbi cia, dod. they don't have a long time to do that, probably no more than a day or so. then he'll be begin his miranda warning and we'll see if he continues to talk. in other terrorism cases, surprisingly, these people do keep talking. >> mike rogers, chairman, do you have a view how he should be treated in the criminal justice system? >> he's a citizen of the united states. i think that brings all of those protections of the u.s. constitution under the public safety exception, however, i do believe that the fbi has a period of time to try to determine what threats are there
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today. we don't know if there are other devices, if there's other people, and mirandaizing him up front, that's not going to happen. i had good conversations with the fbi. they are going to do their due diligence on the public safety portion. here is where the problem is. they're getting pressure from outside groups to actually do the mirandizing. they can do an intelligence based investigation leading up. remember, mirandiz iing is maki sure any of that information they get prior to that mirandizing that the subject might give them can't be used in court. i think i could make this case without a confession from this guy. there is a period of time we don't need his confession up front. we need the information he has to make sure america is safe. if we let the fbi do that the way i think they want to do it, that would be the right solution here and the right -- it would be prudent for the safety of bostonians and around the rest
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of the country. there's a lot we need to understand about if this was a lone wolf sent back or were there others sent back? had that much we just don't know yet. >> can i pull this conversation out a little bit to talk about, as i framed at the beginning, did this change something? does it change how we think about securing america? mike chertoff, former secretary of homeland security, we go through the realities. i talked to you over the years. this is something that people in your line of work have been expecting for a long time after 9/11 and look at what our recent history shows us. we prepared this graphically about plots that have not succeeded or somehow been thwarted. you go back to the so-called shoe bomber in december of 2001, richard reid. and then you had planning to attack subways back in september of '09. you have the christmas day bomber, so-called, tries to blow up a flight but he wasn't able to light the bomb. then you have a successful plot
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by shahzad in times square except the bomb doesn't go off. obviously it was not successful. we know from authorities in new york they helped to foil 16 plots against this city. the face of it terror has changed in some ways and this attack in boston represents that. >> well, i think what we said for years we knew as we elevated our security at the airports and the obvious major high consequence targets, there would be a move towards what we call softer targets, targets that are harder to protect, maybe fewer people but where you can still kill and maim a lot of people. now we see a lot of efforts. we know al qaeda and similar i had logic groups try to find westerners who are capable of moving in our society without being detected. it was only a matter of tame a plot like this would be successful. i don't think it calls for a radical change in our strategy.
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i think we built a strategy anticipating this. resilience is a big part of this and we saw that work very well in boston. there will be, i think and i hope, a review of everything that's gone on to see whether, in fact, there was something that we should have done differently. but i don't think, again, it's a fundamental shift in strategy. >> i want to bring in senator dick durbin from illinois. he joins us this morning. senator, as you think about the political impact of this, the impact of policy and debate on securing the country, the minority leader of the senate, mitch mcconnell, said the other day that we have, because of the work of our military and our law enfo enforcement officials, fallen into a place of complacency. do you agree? >> not at all. not at all. listen, i spoke to the fbi director yesterday, bob mueller. and he talked about the extraordinary efforts by our intelligence agencies and law enforcement in the capture of these two individuals. think about it. less than a week ago this tragedy occurred and how quick
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ly they mobilize and worked effectively to find these two people. and let me also add this. i understand those of us in political laf should comment. that's our responsibility on policy questions, larger policy questions. when it comes down to the basic decisions how to go forward it to investigate this case and prepare it for trial, remember this, since 9/11 we have had hundreds, literally hundreds of terrorism cases successfully prosecuted through our court system. a handful, six cases, have gone through military commissions. so i can understand where president bush and president obama have given to the department of justice the authority to move forward with the type of process that we have going on today. >> do you have questions about the fbi's tracking of the older suspect here who is now dead and whether something was missed? >> of course i do.
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and i think we should is ask those questions. that's our responsibility. i listened to mike rogers and i thought it he laid it out as a former fbi agent himself what we were faced with when we were asked these hard questions. we have to make sure as well, david, we give to the intelligence and law enforcement agencies, federal, state, and local, the resources they need to keep america safe. we live in a dangerous world. we live, also, in a free and open society we value very much. forward to keep americans safe at the marathon, at every other public event, we need to invest the resources that are necessary for law enforcement. >> is that a call, in fact, for re-examination of whether additional resources are needed to look at home grown terror and the potential for smaller attacks that can only be deterred by the strength of law enforcement and engaged citizenry? >> it is. but let me add one other element. let me bring it up to date with the agenda of the senate. our return tomorrow for the senate judiciary committee's second hearing on the new
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immigration reform bill. let me put it in context. there are four specific provisions in this immigration reform bill that will make america safer. we are going to have stronger border with mexico. we are going to have 11 million people come forward and have an opportunity to register with our government out of the shadows. we are going to have verification of employment in the work place. and we're finally going to have a system where we can track visa holders who visit the united states to make sure that they leave when they're supposed to. so this is part of the ongoing conversation about a safer america and the immigration reform bill moves us closer. >> do you fear an impact similar to 9/11 that derailed reform. you heard senator grassley talk about loopholes in the immigration system, leniencies of student visas. are there going to be concerns here related to the boston attack that you think impacts the immigration debate? >> i'll just put it on the line.
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i've been involved with the eight senators who have put this bill together, democrats and republicans. the worst thing we can do is nothing. if we do nothing, leaving 11 million people in the shadows, are not making our border safer, not having the information that comes from employment and these visa holders, we will be less safe in america. immigration reform will make us safer. and i hope that those who are critical of it will just come forward and say what their idea is. we've come up with a sound plan to keep this kcountry safe. >> and your response to senator graham and mccain and ayotte and others who say treat him as an enemy combatant, i want to nail you down on that point, you oppose that? >> you bet. well, let the me just tell you, history tells us that we're doing the right thing hundreds -- literally hundreds of terrorists, those accused of it terrorism, have been successfully prosecuted and imprisoned in the united states using the same process that's being used in this case in boston. the handful, liz cheney and others, who are calling for military commissions, have to
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explain to us why since 9/11 only six times have we use d military commissions. i think we are approaching this in the right way following the law as we should. we are gathering the evidence, and i think at the end, the right decision is being made to pursue this. >> michael chertoff, chairman mike rogers, thank you, mike leiter, and pete williams for all of your reporting this week, what you do better than anybody else. we appreciate it and appreciate you being here this morning. up next, as we get to know more about the suspects and some of the motivations behind the bombings this week, is there now a new sense of vulnerability to the country? a special discussion is coming up. joining me nbc's tom brokaw, peggy noonan, and bloomberg news jeffrey goldberg also of "the atlantic" magazine. an emotional week for boston and for the country as we were all on high alert and as we search for meaning in it all, we'll get the first draft of history through the eyes of the one and only doris kearns goodwin, herself a bostonian.
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designed for women's health concerns as we age. it has 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day 50+. given the big events of the week there was a lot of material out there you might have missed. we put together a list of some of my must reads and must see surrounding the boston tragedy including a piece called "the culprit." with more of the back story on
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the two bombing suspects. you can find it on our press pass blog. as always you can follow me all weeklong on twitte twitter @davidgregory. here is something not to miss this copping week. tune in to nbc news thursday as all five living former presidents gather for the dedication of the george w. bush library and museum. i will be down there and on "today" matt lauer will have is a live interview with the former president and mrs. bush. coming up here after the break, our special edition of "meet the press" continues with our roundtable, tom brokaw, doris kearns goodwin, peggy noonan, and jeffrey goldberg. ♪
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♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. ♪ sweet caroline never seemed so good ♪ in boston you stay calm, you carry on, and you go to the red sox and sing "sweet caroline."
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doris kearns goodwin is here. she was not at the game but she would have been singing. joining me for our roundtable, "wall street journal's" columnist peggy noonan, columnist for bloomberg and writer for "the atlantic" jeffrey goldberg, nbc's tom brokaw and the presidential historian and bostonian doris kearns goodwin. what a week and, you know, the headline of the nightmare's end on saturday morning was fitting, wasn't it? >> what was so striking about the week is patriots day is boston's holiday, my hometown. nothing we love more than it because it combines history, which boston loves, the first shot heard around the world in concord, and then you have the baseball game at 11:00 a.m. and it's really the beginning of spring because it's always too cold on 0 ordinary opening day, and then you have the marathon, which we're so proud of you and people from all over the world coming. and as obama called them, the small individuals chose that ritual, chose that place, chose that day for maximum killing and maximum coverage because they
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knew the ritual was so important. but then the minute it happened, that spirit resolved itself. not only what everybody said, that everybody ran toward the blast, doctors and the nurses were there. the people stayed in lockdown. here they are willing to do this good thing, and then finally when those guys got caught, we were in a bar the night they got caught, and we were watching when he finally comes out and they got him, everybody was just screaming, thank god we got him alive, because they want the answer to the question, why? and then to see the final day back at fenway, people not afraid to go out in massive numbers singing caroline." the yankees sang it, too. and took off their jersey that said "b" on them. we belong to our families. we belong to towour communities. you belong to your hometown. so proud of what boston did this week. >> tom brokaw, the images of people rushing to help in the
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immediate aftermath, only, i think, draws us into the emotion of this week, to the anxiety of this week. and i wonder as you have reflect ed on it, whether you think this has changed something, the nature of the attack. has it rekindled a sense of vulnerability as we think about bringing our children to an event like this or keeping them safe in their schools after a mass shooting? >> i don't think any of us are any more insulated for this kind of violence because it's on televi television 24/7. my wife and i were getting ready for dinner friday night when they finally began to find him and capture him and i said to her, this is a reality show we're going to be living with for a long time. we went through it in newtown with the mass shooting of the youngsters there. i remember so vividly oklahoma city and how that bound us together. there are a couple of things to remember, david, i think for all of us. with the death of bin ladosama
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laden, islamic rage did not go away. in fact, in some ways it's more dangerous. this is a perfect example. you can't get intel on the lone operate aror. there's a lot we still need to know about what motivated him, obviously. he's a chechen, but their beef is with russia not with us. he's also a muslim. and the fact is that islamic rage is still out there. we saw it in times square. we were very, very fortunate under those circumstances. so there has to be more vigilance obviously. but what boston also told us, we have added 30 million surveillance cameras to this country. we have more than doubled our private security budget in this country to now almost $50 billion. the saying is, if you see something, say something. but the other part of that, of course, if you do something, someone will see you doing something. and that's at once a relief, but it also makes me a little uncomfortable. there is no privacy left in our so
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society. >> jeffrey bloomberg, you have chronicled how society reacts to terrorism, particularly in israel, and in all your reporting in the middle east, there's a lot to what tom says about islamic rage, about how society has changed, and how this potentially changes us. >> the slogan is see something, say something. but i think that's honored theoretically by most people in train stations or at ball games or at marathons. i think we're moving into a new era, actually. i call it the era of the suspicious package. which is from now on -- and we'll see this over and over again, when you do see something at the next marathon, someone leaves a gym bag, it's going to cause a response that didn't happen before. tom is right. we're moving into the area of cctv, closed circuit tv. in london today, you really can't walk down the street in london without being filmed by someone, by the police or private security. we are moving definitively in that direction and that should cause discomfort and these things don't stop events from happening necessarily. you can't be 100% vigilant on
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every package, every bag that's left on the street. so we are moving into a new phase. the other thing is, this is the most successful terror attack since 9/11. there's been 12 years between these two attacks. so it's important not to overstate how dangerous this moment is. >> peggy? >> oh, lots of thoughts. i was in penn station yesterday, and there was a heightened sense of watchfulness. there were a lot of police, some military fellows in camouflage with dogs, a few dogs bark iing. so there was the heightened sense of anxiety. it is also true we're not only in the era of closed circuit tv, we're in the era of everybody has a cell phone that is taping everything else that was part of this. to doris' point, in a funny way these things remind places. we always say communities. i say towns. towns and cities are real. they are a place.
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they're full of people who care about each other and engage with each other. they're an entity and they act together. there's something really valuable about that. >> it's interesting, the columnist for the "boston globe" wrote something and at the end of it he said, this loss of innocence really boils down to a feeling that we'll never be totally safe in the city again. and there's a sense, i think, doris, people are still shocked at some level that it could happen to them where they live, and in some ways you thought we would move past that after 9/11 but you think not to you. >> we empathized so much with new york when it happened to new york yet it was in boston and now it's boston and others are empathizing with us. i'm not sure i'll agree we'll never feel safe again. look at the numbers of people that poured into fenway. again, another potential target, just two days after they just had caught the character the day before. and they were just exulting in being together. they were singing, usa. i think peggy's right.
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the other side of this, it brings out the best in us, even as these terrible guys bring out the worst in themselves, and that has to be understood and it has to be used and we have to figure out how to use it. together we can undo most things that happen if we work together. >> when i first heard about what had happened in boston, i was in europe in a different time zone, my first thought, i was told bomb. my first thought, i'm embarrassed to say, is radiological dirty bomb, trouble. i have to tell you, there was a certain relief in finding out it was a crude jerk bomb. do you know what i mean? that it -- for a long time we've been waiting for something more terrible than this. in a way, for all the troubled that you outlined earlier in the show, all the incidents, we have also been lucky. and not just lucky but on the case. that's good. >> to come back to something doris said, the fascinating thing is in the israeli example,
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for instance, i prefer the word defiance to resilience. i find defiance is one step above. and i'll never forget this. i was in jerusalem ten years ago. there was a suicide bombing in a cafe one evening. seven people killed. the next day i went back to kofrp t cover the aftermath, the cafe was open and people were defi t defiantly drinking coffee. you can try to kill me but i will still go to my cafe and drink coffee. i tend to think the most important thing boston could do was finish the marathon. >> and they will. >> run it next week. keep going. >> when britain was being bombed and they put signs in the window saying, come right in. more open than usual. that's what you need. >> that's the best you can do. >> exactly. >> i think there's something else that goes beyond the event that we've all been riveted by
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in the last week. we have to work a lot harder at the motivation here. what prompts a young man to come to this country and still feel alienated from it, to go back to russia and do whatever he did did? i don't think we've examined that enough. there was 24/7 coverage on television, a lot of newspaper print and so on, but we have to look at the roots of all this. it exists across the whole subcontinent, in the islamic world. the united states is involved in drones and innocent people are killed in pakistan, afghanistan, and in iraq. and i can tell you having spent a lot of time over there, young people will say we love america. if you harm one hair on the head of my sister, i will fight you forever. and there is this enormous rage against the presumptuousness.
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>> and the portal is so clear, to act on that rage or to build on it, to further educate it. >> alienation of young males is not a new phenomenon. they are alienated and sometimes violent. what you have on the internet in particular is a brightly lit pathway to an answer. >> exactly. >> not only an answer but a recipe for response. and so this is the question when you talk about what's going on in the muslim world and we have to remember the primary victims of jihadism are other muslims, muslims who don't agree with the more jihadist elements, and so we have to ask ourselves and muslims have to ask themselves, you know, what are we doing to provide counter programming even on the internet? and this is not something that the u.s. can fix or the west can fix. it has to come from within islam. >> let me get a break in here. i also want to talk about how we process this politically. what's going to happen in this town as a response to all of this, the president's role. we know why we're here. ♪
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the world will return to this great american city to run ha harder than ever and to cheer even louder for the 118th boston marathon. >> the president speaking at the memorial certificaservice in bo movingly this week. tom brokaw, washington is going to step up here. the president is going to be speaking to the country about terrorism, about securing the country. questions about interrogating the suspect, whether he should be an enemy combatant or not, how we track home grown terror and, indeed, even our debates over guns and immigration potentially affected. what do you see? >> well, what i see is an opportunity for the american citizens to get involved in trying to do something about the culture of violence that has become such a large part of our lives, whether it's guns or this kind of an attack or whatever it is we are living with it. we're living with the violent video games, for example, that we see. i to think this is an opportunity to say i want to be part of that debate and i think
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that the president could help ignite that in a meaningful way and pull the country together. however you decide your voice ought to be heard in that debate. this is the time to have that debate. here we are in the 21st septembcentury, the most vabsed nation in the world, we have third-world vulnerables almost everywhere we go. our kids are growing up in a way that none of us could have ever anticipated around this table when we were younger about what kind of a card they have to wear to get into school, the fear they may go into a classroom and get shot up by somebody or a movie theater. that's outrageous for an advanced country like the united states without having some kind of a national dialogue about it and putting it at the head of the agenda in my judgment. >> and yet this week as this was going on, as the investigation was going on, the senate defeats the background check bill for guns. so we are confronting this violence but still very divided
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about how we react to it and try to solve it. >> yeah, i think the essential problem is that americans at this point don't trust their government so much to do the right thing. they are skeptical of all bills on things that they care about to lower the conversation a little bit, get it down to mere politics, i guess. i think there is a problem when you've got 90% of the american people wanting something like background checks and a president who is just re-elected and riding a wave, can't make anything move that way. i think there is a problem there, and i think he is having, as somebody said, a problem with the levers of power. >> maybe the problem is also the structure of the senate. at the turn of the 20th century when public sentiment wanted a lot of things done to deal with industrialization and the problem of the slums, the senate was impossible it to move
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because it was millionaires in there. they finally realized they have to have direct election of senators. they used to be elected by the state legislators and were susceptible to special interest. maybe that's the problem given the 60 votes needed, given who they listen to, the power of special interest, public sent is imt cannot pen trade. we've seen it for the last decade. it's not just the senate, the congress. >> majority leader harry reid follow the president? it's not working there. >> but in those states in which the senators vote d against the background checks, it's not even close to 90% in terms of wanting it. it's probably down in single digits in montana and arkansas and alaska and north dakota, the states that block it are democrats, so you have to take that into consideration. >> newtown, 90% move it. small, discreet parts of a bill, push it through. >> kill the filibuster bill. >> definitely. >> i spoke to an educator this week who talked about how the
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anxiety level among parents is just off the chart. part of his point was, that has to be dialed back. people have to get right with the fact that you live in a society that protects freedoms to the point it makes us more vulnerable in some ways, and some things you just cannot prevent. >> look, i go back to this central point, how many people have died in terror attacks in the last 12 years in america, 9/11 was nominalist. and we've had many attempts -- most of the attempts fail. most of the terrorists are bad at terrorism and even when they succeed the casualty count is fairly minimal. i'm not down playing the tragedy of boston. but, really, more to use the sta tis particular, more children die in backyard swimming pool accidents than die in had terrorism and so, yes, there's a certain point we have to simply turn the tv off, god forbid, but at a certain point you have to
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go back to your regular programming in up life and not become obsessed and preoccupied with this. >> and, doris, people feel terrorized, whether it was the sniper case in washington, d.c., and the area a couple years ago or a city like boston, virtually shut down for a period of time. people, you know, told to stay in their homes. is that a culture moving to resilience or defiance or locked in a state of siege? >> i'm an optimist to say it's still moving to defiance and resilience. even as they were catching the second suspect, they were standing on the streets out there. they were in the line potentially of fire but people wanted to be there when it happened and they were applauding. i still think the desire to get back to normal is so distinct in us that you can put these things behind you. live with a low level of insecurity, but life goes on. that's what you do when people die. you know, hemingway once said, everyone is broken by life but some people are stronger in the
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broken places. so nations and cities get broken by life but they're going to be stronger. >> we are part of the problem. when we are so hyper, wired, kids are walking by tvs. for four solid days had the reel of the explosion after the reel of the explosion, the yelling, the screaming. we are encouraging mass hysteria and then having thoughtful panelses on mass hysteria. do you know what i mean? we've to change a little of the way we do it. >> i don't think we're encouraging mass hysteria. there's being prudent and terrorized and there's a big gap between those two. we can do this in a way that's not hysterical but cognizant of what the reality is. the other point, a more hopeful point, after 9/11 we had no experience with this. so sometimes some of our reactions were correct reactions. some were overreactions. and this gives us an opportunity on the drone issue, for instance, on public security issues, on airport and cctv to
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thank you all very much. i think i speak for everybody when i say this has been a particularly tough week, a tebl story riveted the nation, events moved quickly. there is much more to learn about why this happened and more time is necessary, certainly is, to heal from it. we all learned what it means to be boston strong. and we, again, remind our selves how precious life is particularly when it's lost. through it all we can reflect on this powerful image from one of the victims, 8-year-old martin richard, who made this sign for class about a year ago. no more hurting people. peace. that's all for today.
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what does it take to get a tech tax break from the city of san francisco? less than you might expect. san jose, tech museum of innovation, will reboot. plus, author po bronson ponders cheating. our reporters from central china television mark nu. the economist martin giles. this week on "press: here." good morning, everyone. i'm scott mcgrew. the organization joint venture
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silicon valley. in alliance of business and government changed the definition of silicon valley to include san francisco. a place that is not in any way, shape or form a valley. the change was made to acknowledge that san francisco, not the sunny south bay, is the new center of tech. now certainly the san jose area still has apple, the world's most valuable company, as well as google. >> talk about that facebook phone. >> peninsula has facebook. but the new hot start-ups, twitter, yelp, sales force, were all drawn to san francisco. several because of the city's community benefit agreement or cba. a contract whereby the city agrees to drop some taxes in exchange for economic benefits. in the case of start-up zen, the company agreed to locate in the downtrodden tenderloin.
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and support local jobs. in this case, a accident desk luncheon catered by a charity which trains and employs formerly homeless workers. that arrangement has become known as the twitter tax break. however, it really ought to be known as the zen tax break. mark nu. martin giles of the economist. we will talk about how -- what you have to do to san francisco to earn this. but let's start with what you get out of it. why do you want this? >> i think that -- several things drove this product. one of the things i feel personally is the most for thing is that we have a focus for the entire company. we are part of a bigger story. we have an area where we are members and we work with all of the local, you know, local institutions. >> you should do

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